HarmonyOS system welcomes the ＂decisive moment＂ as a ＂key battle＂
The scenery ahead is infinite, and the footsteps are powerful. Standing in 2024, the construction of Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system ushered in a "decisive moment". A few days ago, china securities journal reporter found that despite the enormous challenges and uncertainties, HarmonyOS’s success already has multiple favorable factors, and once it crosses the critical point, HarmonyOS will realize Huawei’s historic leap in the operating system field.
According to Huawei’s plan, in the fourth quarter of this year, Huawei will launch the HarmonyOS Xinghe version of the operating system, which is no longer compatible with Android. This means that HarmonyOS’s operating system will bid farewell to the early compatibility strategy and go on its own, so netizens call it "pure blood HarmonyOS". "Pure blood HarmonyOS" means that the system only supports native Applications, that is, the app needs to be rewritten, otherwise it cannot be used. Huawei’s goal this year is to have 5,000 apps supporting Pure Blood HarmonyOS, and its future goal is to have 500,000 native apps for Pure Blood HarmonyOS. Apple’s iOS and Android App are both on the order of 2 million native applications, and there is a huge gap in front of HarmonyOS.
Xu Zhijun, vice chairman and rotating chairman of Huawei, recently shouted at the 2024 Huawei Analyst Conference, hoping that all developers in the country would join HarmonyOS’s native application ecology as soon as possible. "Huawei has managed 5,000 applications and another 1 million applications, hoping that the whole society will develop them together."
Ren Zhengfei, president of Huawei, once said, "Let those who can hear the sound of guns call for gunfire". Now, HarmonyOS is facing a "decisive moment", and Huawei’s call is urgent. Can the market hear it? How do companies react? How is the development of native applications going? What is HarmonyOS’s odds in the future?
● Our reporter Zhang Xingwang
"Give enough money to people" to rebuild infrastructure
Operating system is called the soul of computer system, and there are only a few successful cases in the market, such as Windows, Apple and Android. Operating system technology is not difficult, difficult in ecology, and difficult to be accepted by the market.
The good news is that china securities journal reporters have learned from many interviews and investigations that based on the future prospects of HarmonyOS’s industry, Alipay, Taobao, Meituan, JD.COM, Nail, Gaode, Xiaohongshu and other head App application manufacturers have started the development of HarmonyOS native applications at the first time. Many manufacturers "give enough money to people" and work overtime to invest in development.
Meituan is the first Internet giant to join HarmonyOS’s native application ecology. Wang Zhiyu, executive director of HarmonyOS Xinghe Edition Meituan App Development Project, told china securities journal that in September 2023, Huawei and Meituan discussed the development of native applications in HarmonyOS, and in November 2023, the two parties signed a contract. According to the delivery schedule, internal testing will begin in March 2024 and public testing will be conducted in June.
Wang Zhiyu said: "The HarmonyOS Xinghe version of Meituan App was developed from scratch. Meituan urgently deployed R&D personnel in various business groups to invest in project development in November last year. We started from the research and development of the underlying infrastructure, and everyone learned while working, and the construction period was very tight."
It is understood that Meituan completed the core function development of HarmonyOS Xinghe Meituan App in six weeks, and ordered the first HarmonyOS Xinghe Meituan App takeaway. The first HarmonyOS Xinghe version of Meituan App covers food, hotel, medicine, take-away, flash purchase, optimization, grocery shopping and other businesses, and is currently being tested. "When users order take-out in HarmonyOS Xinghe version of Meituan App in the future, they can check the progress and details of Meituan take-out orders in time through the live window, and see the key dynamics of take-out at a glance." Wang Zhiyu said.
At the end of March this year, Yangguang. com was the first in the industry to complete the full version development of native applications in HarmonyOS. All the functional modules of Yangguang. com App on Apple’s iOS and Android, and HarmonyOS Xinghe Edition have achieved full coverage. Gong Xiaoou, the head of client development of Yangguang. com Technology Center, told china securities journal that in August 2023, Yangguang. com invested 20 staff members to start the development of native applications in HarmonyOS, which took nearly seven months. At the end of March this year, it was launched internally to test the HarmonyOS Xinghe version of Yangguang. com App. HarmonyOS Xinghe Edition Yangguang. com App has also completed the adaptation on terminal devices such as folding screen mobile phones and tablets.
Gong Xiaoou said, "Pure Blood HarmonyOS" is a brand-new ecology, and it has just started. As the national team of Internet news dissemination and an important new media platform of China Central Radio and Television Station, the earlier it joins HarmonyOS’s native application ecology, the more it can seize the opportunity, be downloaded and paid attention to by more users, and provide rich information services for more users.
According to Huawei, more and more partners have made breakthrough innovations. Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Iqiyi, Himalaya, WPS Office, China Merchants Bank, Postal Savings Bank and other head applications have completed the development of the test version of HarmonyOS Xinghe App, and the products are being continuously polished.
WPS Office is a very basic application office software under Jinshan Office, which has a wide user base. By the end of 2023, the number of monthly active devices of WPS Office mobile version reached 330 million. Yao Dong, vice president of Jinshan Office, told china securities journal: "WPS Office is the first partner to join the native application development in HarmonyOS. We attach great importance to this cooperation and quickly set up a development team of hundreds of people. At the same time, Huawei also has resident R&D personnel to jointly develop, adjust and optimize HarmonyOS Xinghe WPS Office. "
By other’s faults, wise men correct their own. China securities journal reporter learned from the investigation that the addition of the third-party platform will get twice the result with half the effort for the growth of the native application ecology in HarmonyOS. In November, 2023, mPaaS, a mobile development platform of Ant Digital Branch, signed a cooperation contract with Huawei in HarmonyOS. MPaaS serves hundreds of large and medium-sized customers and thousands of small and medium-sized customers in China, including financial customers such as large state-owned banks, joint-stock banks and Toucheng Rural Commercial Bank.
Qi Xiaolong, general manager of mobile technology products of Ant Digital, said: "The mPaaS platform of Ant Digital has more than 2,000 partners. Based on our platform, Android App and Apple iOS App have been developed. Our cooperation with Huawei will not only help us to provide a more compatible version, improve the development efficiency of old customers, but also accelerate the promotion of native applications in HarmonyOS. "
According to Qi Xiaolong, mPaaS, an ant math department, participated in some code and architecture design in HarmonyOS. On April 16th, it launched the HarmonyOS native application beta capability set, which can ensure customers to give full play to the performance of HarmonyOS and reduce the difficulty of accessing HarmonyOS Xinghe Edition. At present, about 30 institutions have entered the testing stage.
According to the reporter’s understanding, Alibaba Cloud audio and video terminal SDK (software package), Gaode map SDK, Weibo login sharing SDK and other third-party SDKs have adapted to HarmonyOS Galaxy Edition, which will further reduce the development workload of partners and drive more partners to accelerate the development process of native applications in HarmonyOS.
According to Huawei, at present, HarmonyOS’s native application ecology has achieved perfect vertical industry coverage, including convenient life, travel, financial management, social information, productivity tools, government and people’s livelihood, news media, audio-visual entertainment, games and other fields, and head applications are scrambling to accelerate the development of native applications in HarmonyOS, continuously injecting new blood into HarmonyOS’s native application ecology.
According to industry insiders, the favorite thing about the operating system is that everyone comes to use it. The more users, the better, and the more applications, the better, which is convenient for the operating system to continuously find problems and iterate; What I fear most is that the market ignores it, and the result of indifference is death, which is the home of most operating systems. HarmonyOS system has attracted the attention of many manufacturers, who are willing to invest real money to develop native applications, which is the greatest support and affirmation for HarmonyOS.
"Internet of Everything" is the biggest advantage
Huawei released Harmony OS (HarmonyOS system) in 2019, which was first applied to Huawei’s smart screen, and began to be applied to Huawei’s mobile phone field in 2021. Counterpoint data show that in the first quarter of 2022, HarmonyOS’s share in the domestic mobile phone market was only 3%, and it increased to 8% in the fourth quarter of 2022 and 16% in the fourth quarter of 2023, showing a steady upward trend. HarmonyOS’s share in the global market reached 4% in the fourth quarter of 2023, making it the third largest mobile operating system in the world after Android and Apple’s iOS.
In September 2023, Huawei announced the full launch of HarmonyOS native applications; In January 2024, Huawei said that HarmonyOS Xinghe Edition will be released in the fourth quarter of 2024. The insiders believe that mobile phones are the most important terminal products of Huawei. With the return of Huawei mobile phones to the market, the confidence of consumers and developers in Huawei has been restored. It is timely for Huawei to launch HarmonyOS native applications. Although HarmonyOS’s native application has just started, its three advantages have great appeal to developers.
First, Huawei has a large number of terminal equipment. At present, with the return of Huawei’s mobile phone king, products such as tablet, PC, smart screen and smart car are continuously introduced, which will increase the installed capacity of HarmonyOS system. A native Application developer in HarmonyOS bluntly said that Huawei has a huge number of end users, which is the key reason to attract various manufacturers to develop HarmonyOS Xinghe version of the app. "Alipay sees a large number of users of Huawei mobile phones, and definitely hopes that users can use Alipay App on Huawei mobile phones." An insider said frankly.
The data shows that there are more than 800 million ecological devices in HarmonyOS, including more than 300 million owned by Huawei. Wang Zhiyu said: "Huawei is an important user channel for Meituan, which is an important consideration for Meituan to join HarmonyOS’s native application ecology."
Secondly, technically, HarmonyOS has the advantages of seamless collaborative experience across terminals and multi-terminal deployment at one time. Liu Shuangfeng, chief analyst of CITIC Jiantou Securities and Electronics Industry, believes that Google’s Android system is dominant with its open source characteristics and rich application ecology. Apple’s iOS system has won the favor of a large number of users with its closed ecosystem and excellent user experience. Huawei’s HarmonyOS system takes a different approach, focusing on distributed capabilities. According to the reporter’s understanding, HarmonyOS not only allows users to switch freely between mobile phones, tablets, computers and other devices through distributed technology, but also realizes resource sharing among multiple devices, making it more convenient for users to use.
In addition, Zhu Yonggang, president of Huawei Terminal Cloud, said: "The important characteristics of HarmonyOS’s one-time development of multi-terminal deployment enable applications to realize continuous access to services in the fields of tablets, PCs, smart screens, televisions, watches, smart cars, etc., and at the same time reduce the cost of developers. With only one development, new opportunities for commercial returns can be generated on various devices."
Many native application developers in HarmonyOS bluntly told china securities journal that although they encountered some technical problems during the development of HarmonyOS Xinghe App, they were able to communicate directly and smoothly with Huawei team, which reduced the communication cost. "We put forward some demands to Huawei, and the Huawei team can respond quickly, which is unmatched by Android and Apple iOS." A developer said.
Third, HarmonyOS has huge industrial space. Huawei put forward the strategy of "1+8+N" (1 stands for mobile phone, 8 stands for tablet computer, PC, VR device, wearable device, smart screen, smart audio, smart speaker, car, and N stands for pan-IoT device). HarmonyOS is not just a mobile phone operating system, but an operating system for the Internet of Everything era. According to Haitong Securities Research Report, compared with Android and Apple iOS, HarmonyOS has a large market share in a variety of terminal products, and has a huge market space in the future.
Liu Kai, an analyst at Everbright Securities, believes that after half a century’s development, the application software and hardware devices have undergone earth-shaking changes, and the development of the operating system has gone through two complete eras. The first era is the computer era dominated by Windows and Mac OS, and the second era is the smartphone era marked by Android and Apple iOS. With the continuous evolution of technology and the constant change of equipment form, the number of devices connected by the Internet of Things has exceeded 10 billion units, and it has quietly become the most important part of networked equipment terminals, and the era of the Internet of Things has arrived. HarmonyOS, which is oriented to the next generation operating system, is expected to become the leader of the Internet of Things operating system.
On January 18th, at the sailing ceremony of HarmonyOS Eco-Qian Fan, Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei, CEO of terminal business and chairman of BU, a smart car solution, said that HarmonyOS would open a new blue ocean with a trillion yuan industry. Qi Xiaolong told china securities journal that unlike other OSs, HarmonyOS has a large number of IoT terminal devices, and HarmonyOS has huge industrial space, which is the reason for attracting the mPaaS platform of ant science to join the native application ecology of HarmonyOS. "As a third-party development platform for multi-terminals, we look forward to building an ecosystem with partners such as Huawei and Runhe Software to achieve mutual benefit and win-win."
The horizon dawned.
It has always been the wish of China people to have their own operating system. But it is not easy to realize this long-cherished wish. This depends on people’s efforts, but also on the progress of the times. Every generation of operating systems can win, which is to seize the cusp of the times. In the Internet of Things era, there should be a new operating system.
TechInsights, a research institute, predicts that Android and Apple’s iOS will continue to play a dominant role in the world, and from 2024, HarmonyOS will become the second largest smartphone operating system in China.
"Building HarmonyOS’s native application ecology is the most critical thing for Huawei in 2024." On April 17th, Xu Zhijun said that in the past, HarmonyOS’s operating system mostly adapted to various terminal devices in the south, but it still shared the application ecology of Android in the north. Huawei hopes that in 2024, 5,000 applications commonly used on smart phones (the usage time accounts for 99% of the total user usage time) will be fully migrated to the native operating system in HarmonyOS, and the operating system and application ecology will be truly unified.
For HarmonyOS system, the dawn of the horizon appears at first sight. In April 2021, Yang Haisong, then vice president of Huawei’s consumer business AI and full-scenario business department, said in an interview that for an ecology, especially for the underlying platform such as operating system, software usage and market share are the core factors for its survival and success, and 16% market share is a life-and-death line. Yang Lin, an analyst at Haitong Securities, believes that there are more than 800 million ecological devices in HarmonyOS at present. From this calculation, HarmonyOS’s global market share has reached 13.11%, which is very close to the life-and-death line of 16%.
The reporter learned from the investigation that Huawei’s technical support for developers is indispensable because HarmonyOS is a brand-new operating system. On March 15th, Zhu Yonggang said that Huawei will assist enterprises and institutions to develop more than 5,000 native applications in HarmonyOS by the end of 2024, and finally realize the development of more than 500,000 native applications in HarmonyOS. On April 7, Huawei said that from January 18 this year, Huawei announced that the first batch of more than 200 application vendors were accelerating the development of native applications in HarmonyOS, and by the end of March, more than 4,000 applications had joined the native application ecology in HarmonyOS, with a growth rate of about 20 times in just two months.
Zhu Yong just said bluntly that it is impossible to build a native application ecology in HarmonyOS only by relying on the strength of Huawei. The HarmonyOS adaptation of mPaaS, a branch of ant mathematics, means that it will effectively accelerate the "HarmonyOS" of thousands of apps from point to area, and become one of the boosters for the development and growth of native applications in HarmonyOS.
Although HarmonyOS’s native applied ecology is developing like a bamboo, it has to face some challenges.
First of all, after the technological breakthrough, there is a big gap in the number of ecological applications in HarmonyOS, and it still needs to catch up. As early as May 2019, when Ren Zhengfei talked about the operating system in an interview with the media, he said frankly: "The operating system is not difficult technically, but the difficulty is ecology."
According to public information, in the global market, Apple launched the Apple App Store in 2008, and currently there are nearly 2 million apps in the App Store; The Android ecosystem has 2.8 million apps. In contrast, HarmonyOS’s native application ecology has just started, and there is a huge gap. It is urgent to accelerate the development of native applications in HarmonyOS.
Secondly, some manufacturers are on the sidelines. An engineer from a big Internet company told china securities journal that many manufacturers are watching Huawei. For example, some big companies are just adding some applications to the native application ecology in HarmonyOS. Xu Zhijun called on all application developers and application owners in China to join HarmonyOS’s native application ecology as soon as possible. In this way, when HarmonyOS Xinghe Edition is really used, it can bring good experience to consumers.
At present, Tencent’s WeChat has not announced its participation in HarmonyOS’s native application ecology. By the end of 2023, the combined monthly active users of WeChat and WeChat were 1.343 billion. A native application developer in HarmonyOS bluntly told the china securities journal reporter: "WeChat has a large number of users. In fact, everyone is most concerned about when it will join the native application ecology in HarmonyOS."
It is reported that Huawei and Tencent are talking about the collapse, but according to a person familiar with the matter, it is false news that the two sides are talking about the collapse.
Many native application developers in HarmonyOS admitted to china securities journal that the native application ecology in HarmonyOS is developing with each passing day. The sooner you join the native application ecology in HarmonyOS, the higher the attention you may get and the greater the traffic. However, for applications such as WeChat, we can’t generalize, and both parties may involve commercial interests and other factors. HarmonyOS’s native application ecology should be enlarged, and developers should also share the industrial cake.
In order to promote the native application ecology in HarmonyOS, Huawei has launched the "Yaoxing Plan" of 7 billion yuan, which continuously encourages ecological innovations such as native applications, meta-services and SDK in HarmonyOS. Xu Zhijun said: "When we migrated these 5,000 applications and thousands of other applications to the HarmonyOS operating system, the HarmonyOS operating system was completed and truly became the third largest mobile operating system in the world besides Apple iOS and Google Android."